Koi
by Dangerous Emotions
Summary: AU: If they were enemies to the end, how did she end up existing? T for foul language.


**This would be an Alternate Universe because:**

**The Akatsuki hadn't all died off.**

**Itachi was actually evil.**

**There would never be a child from these two characters.**

**And I'm allowed to bend the genre sense Kishimoto killed an amazing shinobi.**

**If you want a clearer picture of Koi, there is a link on the profile.**

**If you are a reader who does not prefer a custom child between two canons, hit the back button. Sorry you have to suffer crack-pairing fandom.**

* * *

She was definitely her father's daughter. She had a strong set jaw with a feminine touch, his sharpened eyes, scary irises, and her low tolerance for stupidity. Other than her gender and covered right eye, her skin was slightly darker than his own and her hair was also a few shades down from his bright blonde. The strands also had the habit of fraying out, almost looking rigid despite her straightening it many times. Kisame said she got it from her mother, whom no one spoke of. Hardly did her father ever talk about her, except whenever Koi asked questions. He had either said, "I don't know," or something else. However, despite his lack of information about her deceased mother, he had never truly badmouthed or criticized her in a response. Hidan did most of that, like he did with everyone else, but that was just him. He'd bash Koi too whenever he had the chance.

Sasori was the only other one that knew the whole story about her mother and father, but she never bothered the dubbed 'Godfather'. When she was little, she was scared of him because he never blinked. Now, it was because she had nightmares about him gutting people and then turning their flesh into wood. Also, he hardly took up his plastered role to her. Deidara would get irritated sometimes, saying that she could learn many useful things from him. Both in the line of art and battle.

"He killed a brat with pink hair a little younger than the age you are now," Deidara said. "He still has her propped up somewhere down there. So far, she has been the hardest one for him to slaughter, hm." Sasori's inhumane skills drove her away. Koi preferred to stay with Konan whenever she got the chance. The woman was silent, smart, and the more caring out of them all. More to say, when Koi was little and Deidara couldn't handle her outbursts, Konan would come and take her. Ever since, Koi settles down whenever around the angel. Sometimes she'd like to consider Konan a mother figure; she was the one that taught Koi how to summon weapons from scrolls and use them to her advantage. She helped her through her teenage phases when Deidara couldn't deal with those either. Konan passed down morals, stories, facts, lessons, truths, lies, things had, things not had, personal value, and all of the other sorts. Koi would do anything for Konan, call her mother if she could, but the blue-haired angel never had any other expression then a serious frown on her porcelain face. That, and Pein valued Konan's time more and more. In return, it was obvious Konan would give her up for the leader.

Kisame wasn't too bad out of the bunch, and more than often she stuck with the blue oddity just to escape the pessimism of the whole household. Amegakure always, _always_ rained. He usually found a way to make things chipper. Even with the Uchiha around, whom she adopted an unreasonable grudge towards. In the beginning, just the mere dark presence of him sent splinters into her spinal cord. She told her father she didn't like Itachi and something about him made her afraid of him.

"There's no reason for you to be scared of such a blind person." Deidara sneered his face and nearly seethed the words out. He hadn't been happy when she told him she was terrified of the Uchiha. He had gone lightly on her, since she was only about seven years when she said this to him. "He does not appreciate true art, a true work of effort that is better than his own. He is ignorant, hm! He will never uphold acknowledgement over anyone, but his cold, red eyes do not make him better than anyone else." He had been molding several sculptures at that time. She could still remember how the muscles in his arms flexed and his shoulders tensed up near his neck. The fire in his right eye could have radiated heat. He had glared at her with a severely wrinkled nose and his teeth showing in their grit. "You do not _ever_, let that imbecile talk low to you. _Understand _that?" Since then, Koi had made it a habit of letting Itachi know she was not afraid of him, whether by silence with just the two in the same room or by volunteered scouting. She was never afraid to raise her hand to accompany him. Though she wasn't necessarily a thorn in his side, he got the message, and openly expressed his opinion about the matter one evening a couple years back.

"Deidara, I severely hope you are not pressuring your vengeance into your daughter. I would hate to snap her neck over something you give more investment to than your only child's life." Deidara had flung the entire low table over, dumping its many contents of oily foods, grains of rice, and steaming tea all over the Uchiha. The blonde stood tall, heaving with anger and dominance, and countered Itachi with words that both pertained to his wrenching past and that his daughter was personally not afraid to be around such a beast. Itachi hardly brought the subject up again. Koi avoided him a lot more afterwards, but her state never changed when around him.

"I think your dad could seriously whoop Itachi's moonlight ass." It was another evening when she had come back with taxes from the inhabitants of the village. She simply handing Kakuzu the bags when the lazing Jashinist blurted. "I mean really; your dad fucking blows stuff to no existence. He sees directly _through_ Genjutsu and he's got a bunch of possessed fucking dirt to follow the guy around. I heard Sasori say that he can even make shit just flake away like dust. Seriously. Itachi would be dead and your dad would go on boasting about his shit-spitted mud as long as we all have ears attached to hear him." Hidan then snorted. "Bloody shit, knowing your dad, he might just think you'll be as great as him and send you to kill Itachi's brother."

"Hidan, shut your mouth." Kakuzu never had a problem with her. Now. Konan and Kisame were the only ones to put up with her when she was a child. She had mellowed out so much since then, even more than her father. Her terms with Kakuzu were to the point that he would tell her to go far, far away whenever he and Hidan were about to duke it out. Or when he got pissed in general. Overall, her life with Akatsuki was neutral, but most of her life was spent in Amegakure where she learned to water proof her sealing scrolls and make her own explosive dust. She was always long ranged, never close. She could throw a few kicks and jabs, but had a bubble problem and resented it being popped. No matter the situation.

"You are too much like your dad," Kisame laughed. "And again, pretty much like your mom. Sometimes it's hard for me to figure out who would be the one pissed and yelling. Same with the overconfidence, heh heh." There were questions that Koi asked her father, which would seem reasonable to ask, but the few that the organization expected her to question, she never did. Koi never asked Deidara if he had loved her mom. She never asked if her mom loved her, more for the reason she had Konan a lot of the time. She also never asked when he and her met, how long they were together, and if they were married. Koi usually only asked what her mothe'rs favorite colors were.

"Maroon and blue," Deidara said.

What her favorite food was.

"I don't know," Deidara said.

What her favorite animal was.

"If I hadn't known better, I'd say a panda to be a smartass, but your mom was in love with dragons, hm."

What her least favorites were.

"Don't know."

Her family and her friends.

"I hardly met them."

Her name.

"Tenten…"

If she was dedicated to art as much as he was.

"She was definitely dedicated to something."

Afterwards, Koi mostly became oriented with Deidara and she figured that since no one brought up her mother, she didn't need to either. Growing up with the silent woman of the Akatsuki and everyone else included, Koi preferred to stay quiet herself. Except when she got livid, which was just as quick as it was to tick her father off, and they had their own explosions one too many times. Oddly enough, it was never about the deleted woman, but about fighting styles and why she was hardly moving up in rank. Koi wasn't a prodigy like any of the rest of them. Her father was recruited when he was twelve. At seventeen, she was slightly above that level he had been. Her failure of speedy evolution also seemed to be a trait she adopted from her mother, as it was said.

"Stop dividing your daughter between what she has of you and what she has of the woman," Kakuzu finally said one night. "She's herself. Treat her as an individual, not a copy of you or Tenten. If she's slow, then she is slow. Your Kinjutsu doesn't pass down, so she will not be like you."

"At least she has his knack for exploding things on contact," Kisame snorted. "About every weapon she throws is littered with that dust." Deidara seemed to lighten up on her after that, and after a while, took more interest into her exploding dust and weaponry. Least to say, he found a few things familiar, and some things surprising when she practiced.

"You should ask Sasori to teach you how to connect strings to your weapons. He's more oriented with metal than I am." It was dark out, as always in the afternoon of the rainy country. It had been more of a low drizzle though and mildly chilly with damp air. They were near one of the many buildings with its pipes and 'lack of anything decorative'. She was sideways on one of the cemented walls. He leaned against another under an overhang to avoid the wet, but it wouldn't have mattered. He was cloaked and had his hat dangling in his fingers. Koi turned her head sideways, her blonde hair trying to cover her only visible eye. She pulled it back, tucking the couple of strands behind her pierced ear.

"Sasori-danna doesn't like me. It would be rude to ask him to teach me something when we hardly talk." Her voice was a near copy of Tenten's. Nearly, just a lot more solemn, if it could be put like that. "Can't you teach me an earth style technique? I'll find a way to make it explode." At that he lifted his head a little and smiled. There was a lone wrinkle under his visible eye, showing age.

"Some other time, yeah? I would need to teach you with drier earth before you could start with crap." It thundered heavily, but Deidara rolled his eye. "Pein-sama won't ever understand…hm." Landing on her feet from the drop, Koi dashed over to her father's side to escape the recently heavy pour of rain. She flattened herself against the wall and ducked closer to Deidara, as if he would block it. He frowned and then plopped the pan hat on her head backwards so she could see nothing but the damp strings. "Why do you always forget that jacket I bought you? Running around with bare arms and nothing but fishnet on your stomach will give you bad health, hm." Quickly Koi spun the hat around so that it was correct. She furrowed her brow at him and frowned heavily.

"Because when that jacket gets soaked, it's harder to move in it." Deidara stared at her and then briefly looked away.

"Your mother would make that face whenever something stupid was done."

"You mean Tenten?" Koi asked. Deidara nodded. The rain got louder and the overhang began to pour the water like a fall. Immediately they started dashing down the alleyways of puddles back towards the tower. Dripping madly, Deidara dumped his cloak on the floor and threw his socks and shoes into the same pile. Koi did the same and dove for the blanket left on the cerulean couch of the cold entry room. Deidara entered the nearby restroom and when he came back, he suckered her face with a black towel. He yanked out his topknot with a grit of his teeth and furiously began to scratch at his hair. Koi did the same, and afterwards he wrapped himself in the towel and sat her feet. They listened to the thunder roll and the lightening starting to strike. The silence wasn't something new. It was just a shared moment of thinking.

"Why don't you ever call her Tenten?" Deidara was half asleep when she asked this. He blinked and rubbed his eye with a grimace. "You always say 'your mother'."

"Umphrrr…" he grumbled. "That's how parents talk, hm. Around the kid they say 'your mommy' or 'your daddy.'" He laid his face into his hand and started going back to sleep. Koi was fixated on a new territory though; finally.

"Did you know her last name?"

"Uh-uh…" he replied tiredly.

"What…eh…did…" Koi got frustrated and she blew air through her nose angrily. "I might explode for some reason." Deidara chuckled and patted her covered feet.

"You were going to ask this stuff anyway. You're old enough." Almost instantly Koi sat upright and faced him, clutching her covered feet in her blanketed hands.

"How did you guys meet then?" Deidara opened his eye and looked up towards the ceiling, furrowing his brow. A flashback of being ganged on by four people, a series of kicks and punches, hit in the face by air, _many_ sharp objects, a smashed tree, and then obliterating himself flooded quickly.

"…Uh…by a mission that she was sent on." Koi leaned in and frowned.

"…You don't really remember, do you?" she asked. Deidara closed his eye and sighed. He sat up a little more in the couch then looked over at his daughter with a hesitant appearance of bore.

"I remember as much as she would give me. Your mom…Tenten, and I, were very much enemies when we met one another." At this, Koi's reaction was shock. "I was with the organization and she was with Konohagakure, which you _know_, is our largest enemy at hand." He paused and shifted a little, cracked his neck and then his shoulders. "Remember that sand demon I told you about when you were little? Tenten came with a large group of people, including the Kyuubi, in order to get the body of the demon back. Of course, she tried to kill me, and I nearly came close to blowing her up." Suddenly he frowned angrily. "Fucking Hatake."

"So…how did you two, do…" Koi had her hands out and she was moving them oddly, but she couldn't quite place them, like her words. "…Eh…how did I get here?" Before Deidara could open his mouth Koi spoke again, pointing her finger at him. "Unless! …Mother all of a sudden _abandoned_ Konoha and joined you!" Deidara snorted for about three seconds and then laughed out loud.

"Your mother sucked compared to us." He resituated himself and cleared his throat, looking at her with a smile that mocked her. "She was good but not _that_ good. It's why I want you to learn more than summoning tools, because that was all your mother used, hm." Koi tilted her head to the side. "Only, she would use more than two, and they were longer. She could use every single weapon she brought out and she had this way of…spinning, in the air or on the ground, and all the tools would hit her target. When I met her, she only had one large scroll that she carried on her back." His gaze strayed to the cemented floor and he dazed. "She could make them storm down in a white rain… Even though it was utterly useless against me, it was still something I found interesting about her." He smiled at Koi again, but now she was perplexed.

"…Did you two love each other?" His smiled died at her question and he sighed stressfully, crossing his arms. While Koi waited in the thundering silence, Deidara went over in his mind the reel of words he could say. He picked this up over the years, because his 'saying without thinking' made situations worse with his daughter, whether she flamed back or started wailing because he was about ready to kill her.

"Koi, there is no good story between your mother and I. She was very, very devoted to her country, and I _hated_ it, and still _loathe_ them all today. Your mother never joined Akatsuki. She met almost everyone here because she fought with them all…in fact, she put Hidan in a very critical position and that's why he talks shit about her all the time, hm." He looked down for a moment, then started again. "Tenten…eventually," he flipped his hand to show the length of time he tried to speak of. "-got higher in rank. We all knew who she was, what she could do, and that she was somewhat of a threat… I guess after a few confrontations with her myself, I got tired of her always finding away out of our fights. I got tired of not being able to finally dominate a battle over her. One day…" He shrugged. "I caught her, but I didn't finishe her off as fast as I might have." Koi stared at him, but she was no longer shocked. Knowing her father, she might have guessed what kind of man he would appear to other people. The way the story was going, Tenten was one of them.

"We kept her for ransom at first, but when none of her friends responded, we faked her death. That got some retaliation, but not enough to retrieve the Kyuubi, hm. She was my responsibility, and over the year I mocked her about her country. She didn't lose her spirit though."

"…So then what happened?" Koi wanted to know the real stuff. She wanted to know what had exactly took place. "I know there was a war. Did she fight in it? Did she eventually fall in love with you?"

"The war started, yes. That's when people found out she was alive and they took her back, and for a while I didn't see her again. When I _did_…" A faint pink came through his face and he sighed heavily. "She knew more about close-range than I did and she was able to grapple me down. Good Lord your mother was strong for her build…hm!" He shook his head at the memory. "We, pretty much fought like two inexperienced Genin on the ground and…I landed on top and stuff just went from there." Koi's jaw dropped to speak, but his hand stopped her.

"Yes, I did. Tenten absolutely despised me, Koi. There is no doubt on this earth that I would not believe she would be any happier than ripping my entrails out from my esophagus and pinning my eyeballs on her senbon like dango. Your mother hated me. Usually back then, it wouldn't have mattered to me, but I hadn't met a kunoichi like her. She was very different. Completely unaffiliated with artwork and I suppose that's why. I wanted her, and after I did, that was it." He bobbed his head from side to side after that, continuing. "And _then_, after the war a few months later, Pein-sama decided to gather in all the women and children here. The only reason why Tenten was spared was because she was pregnant with you."

"Did you find out?" Koi asked. Deidara's eye widened immediately and he nodded.

"I had came in to help deposit some supplies for the current brats at that time and I caught her sitting against one of the walls with the other women and crying kids, glaring at me, hm. I didn't go back until she was probably…eight months with you. After Kakuzu, Hidan, and Kisame constantly berated me about the father shit, I tried offering her to come stay with me for obvious reasons. She'd be better off, and so would you, hm."

"She said no, didn't she."

"She had said 'fuck you', actually." He smirked. "And then she started crying. You were premature, I don't know if I ever told you that, hm? …I wasn't there for the actual thing, and I didn't stick around. I do remember her holding on to you as if you were the only thing she would die for more so than Konoha." It was silent for a couple of seconds. "So, no. She and I never loved each other. We definitely did not marry. She and I were hardly considered being together. I do know one thing for certain, hm, other than her absolutely hating me to the end." Deidara cupped Koi under her chin and made her look at him. "Tenten loved your very, very much, hm. I am positive she wanted nothing more than you; you were her greatest creation in the world." Koi smiled sadly and Deidara withdrew his hand. "After about a year though, she never recovered from postponed war stress and the tax it had on her body beforehand- this is what I was told, anyway, hm. The labor kept her bedridden and she finally slipped off. Apparently, it took her a lot longer to die than it would have any other woman. After that, Konan recovered you and asked me if I wanted to take full responsibility. Took me a while, but then you starting looking a lot like me and acting like me, and I don't think I could have said no after those weeks." Koi scooted closer to Deidara and put her arms around his neck. He brought his arm around her to return the hug, but then he decided to pull her closer towards him and hold her closer with one hand in her dark blonde hair.

"You think she'd still hate you for taking me in?" Koi asked. Deidara closed his eye somewhat angrily.

"I have no clue, hm."

* * *

**Commence shooting me in my parietal.**


End file.
